Fix 04

The FIX biennial in 2004 gained a local and international reputation for profiling the range of practices that come under the big umbrella of performance art, whose history has unfolded in the overlapping paths of fine art, poetry, theatre and architecture, amongst others.

FIX04 – the 6th edition of the biennial - was seen in the context of similar festivals worldwide that reject the segregation of cultures or artistic forms according to dominant economies, be they of the marketplace or taste.

From performances that expose and play with the role of technology in culture - using sound techniques, video and web-cam elements - to low-tech, highly charged experiments with body and mind, to performances that radicalize an all too conditioned and exclusive social space, Catalyst Arts brought the work of these dynamic artists from home and overseas, to the public of Belfast and beyond.

(Written by Julie Bacon: Co-director Catalyst Arts, Co-ordinator FIX04, 2004)

Artist Biographies

The following depicts biographies of participating artists in ‘Fix 04’. They are written accurate to the year 2004.

Arahmaiani is based in Jakarta. She has been making performances since 1995 in the context of arts activism in Indonesia, and in relation to the defence of human rights. She has been active in artist-run spaces and collectives in Indonesia/South-East Asia since 1995.

Vasya Slavova Vasileva is currently working on her PhD in Art Semiotics at New Bulgarian University, Sofia. She delivers lectures on Visual Semiotics at the New Bulgarian University, and works in the fields of performance art, digital imaging, and installation. Her theoretical research focuses on hermeneutics and semiotics of contemporary arts.

Michelle Rhéaume is based in Québec. Since 1999, her art practice has focused on combining media to create new works that explore the physicality of the body. Her work offers a critical and poetic view of our daily interactions. She has been active in a number of artist groups including Espace Virtuel art centre, Québec.

 Marilyn Arsem is based in Boston, U.S.A. She has been creating live events since 1975, from solo performances to large-scale, site-specific works incorporating installation and performance. She is the founder of Mobius, and is a member of the artists group.  As a full-time faculty member at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, she heads the Performance Area and teaches in the Graduate Program.

 Sylvette Babin is based in Montreal, Canada. She is an interdisciplinary artist who works in performance, video and installation. She co-curated the performance event AttrAction/Ap.Art in 1999 and is director of esse arts + opinions, a major Canadian art magazine.

Anne Bean is based in London. She has worked internationally in the area of performance\installation for the last 35 years. She has worked in numerous collaborative situations, including with: communities in Zambia; travellers and workers on boats in the English Channel; young people from the RNIB (Royal National Institute of the Blind); the cosmology consultant for New Scientist magazine, Marcus Chown; a Buddhist monk of the Peace Pagoda in London.

 John G. Boehme is based in Victoria, Canada. His work integrates new practices with a multi-disciplinary approach, which often incorporates performance, sculpture, photography, video, digital technology, and installation. For the past four years John has been a Sessional/Adjunct Instructor and at the University of Victoria, Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, and Camosun College.

 Alexander Del Re is based in Santiago, Chile. He has been making performances since 1995, and is the founder of the Perfopuerto group, which organizes art events across South America, including the Coalition international festival in Chile. He has released a number of audio compilations, produced in conjunction with his performances, and is a collaborator in a number of international art groups, including IAPAO (International Association of Performance Art Organisers).

Denis Romanovski is based in Minsk, Belarus. He has been active as a performance artist since 1999, presenting work in frameworks including: Asiatopia, 5th Performance Art Festival, Bangkok, Thailand (2003); Interakcje Performance event, Piotrkow, Poland; Amorph, MUU Gallery Finland (2001). He curates the Navinki performance festival, an annual event in Belarus.

Helen Sharp is a Belfast-based artist whose practice includes installation, performance. Her work explores concerns including systems of knowledge, ways of remembering, and the intertwining of high and low culture. She is a former co-director of Catalyst Arts, and featured in the One Place Twice exhibition (June 2003) organized by the Sculpture Society of Ireland at Belfast’s Golden Thread gallery. She publishes articles about art and curates events.

Jamie McMurry has been creating original works of contemporary performance and presenting them all over the world for more than 10 years. In addition, he is an active performance art curator and organizer all over the US and the Director of the Full Nelson International Performance Art Festival. McMurry a visiting artist faculty member in the performance area at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Uto Gusztav presents performance actions combining political and poetic impulses that respond to current and local situations. He has been making performance actions for over 20 years, presenting his work throughout Europe, Asia and North America. Uto also worked throughout the 1990s as the organizer of the ANNART festival, an international outdoor performance art festival around a volcanic lake in Transylvania. 

Sinéad O’Donnell was born in 1975, Dublin, Ireland, her practice involves real time and photographic interventions that question her perceptions of gender, and identity in response to the changing landscapes of personal, political and social circumstances. She has recently returned to Belfast since relocating her practice into Eastern Europe for three months.

Matt Cook is based In Wales. He is currently artist in residence at Bedford Creative Arts, England. His past projects, which often combine sound and drawing in performance include: participation in Rhwnt (Le Leiu, Quebec City, Canada September 2004), an exchange project between Wales-Québec, organised by Trace Gallery, Cardiff; 2nd DaDoa Live Art Festival, New Soho complex, Beijing, China; Experimentica04, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.

Roman Maskalev was born in 1977 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. He graduated from the College of Fine Arts in 2000, in Bishkek and is a member of the “Bronepoezd” group. His recent work includes; 2004 – “And Others…”, International exhibition of contemporary art, State Museum of Fine arts, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; 2004 – “Videoidentity”, Central Asia video festival, SCCA-Almaty, Kazakhstan.